To be absolutely gutted the school have received a complaint about this race?

[WinTakenAway]

Sports day last week.

It was the first one since Covid, and was so well run.

Every child had to do everything but they were all awarded a house point for taking part, 2 points for a 1st place only.

My DD came last in all but one race. The race she won was her against 1 other child in her class whose in a wheelchair.

This is the race they’ve received a complaint about.

According to the parent complaining it was unfair!

It wasn’t the parent of the child in the wheelchair who complained as the parent was heard praising the HT for including him in everything.

My DDs had the win taken off her, as the complaint was upheld by the governors. Even though the boy himself wasn’t bothered (he’d won 2 races himself).

DD needed that win, she hates school, is dyslexic and dyspraxic so struggles with even the basics. She needed that win to go into school with confidence and have something to boast about (trust me she’s the type of child that needs to be able to talk about her achievements as she’s always complaining and comparing herself).

It’s a mixed class of Y1 and 2s, so the other child was at most 7. And neither of the DC involved cared, as I said the boy had already won 2 races, my DD just needed a little boost.

Why can’t people just leave alone and let the teachers make a decision that’s best for the class?

So last week your child's school hosted a sports day. They ran a race with two children with disabilities (why?) and someone complained to the governors that the child with less visible disabilities won.

Did the school publicly retract the win? It all sounds a shambles, a waste of school time over winning losing etc, but I understand your frustration. A great deal of time spent by adults, who frankly have better things to do, worrying about something the kids probably won't care about next week.

It all depends on how it has been played out. Have they really got the board of governors in for sports day results? Like, actually? If they have I'm pretty sure you can ask for a record.

@Morph22010 that was nothing to do with the fairness or unfairness of the decision. My point was despite the fairness or unfairness of the decision shit happens and the best OP can do is teach her DD not to base her self esteem on things like house points or winning a race cos these things for the most part are out of her control.

I get that you mean hes not particularly fast because the girl was so slow he didnt need to be in order to beat her,,,,, but Im confused about the Oscar reference, he had a prosthetic leg, hes not a wheelchair user?

Well personally I would be teaching my child that when unfair things happen, you dont just have to sit back and take it. If we all did that when we would still be legally sacked for getting pregnant, it would still be perfectly ok to sack a person when they have a stroke but can still do their job with reasonable adjustments, women would be paid even less than men than we already are and not be able to challenge this in court...............

I’m not clear on what’s happened here. What was the actual race? Your DD running vs the child in the wheelchair propelling himself? And what was the complaint? That it was ableist and discriminatory to have an able bodied child racing a wheelchair? That it was discriminatory to have a race solely for 2 disabled kids?

Absolutely spot on.

What sort of school has a two kid race, one with special needs and one in a wheelchair?! Sounds absolutely batshit!

Don't be silly, having 1 house point docked and being sacked for getting pregnant are two different ends of the scale and you know it. My son plays sports at a high level sometimes decisions are made by umpire etc that turn out to be wrong but you just have to the it on the chin. Not everything is a fight. Dont sweat the small stuff.

That's exactly what I was waiting to say. I'm appalled that so many people on here have assumed that the boy in the wheelchair was incompetent and slow, and that beating him was nothing to be proud about. Wheelchair races are often faster than running races, and OP's daughters has a disability too.

Horribly ableist posts that assume that a wheelchair user is no competition.

You know that the only reason that Mumsnet exists is because some women, a very very long time ago, fought to have the right to own their own property and not simply be their husbands property? That that lead to, eventually, women getting the vote? Which then ended up with women in parliament? Which gave a whole generation the push to fight for equal rights in work? Which further ultimately gave us protected characteristics which means that you didnt get sacked for being pregnant and cannot be sacked now for being a woman or being gay or disabled or for your religion et al?

Do you think that all of those people fought on the big issues first? Of course not, they fought the small winnable injustices and then moved on to the bigger ones. So yes a house point is a small thing but if you teach your child to simply accept the discrimination then dont be surprised when they dont report their boss for not being promoted for being the wrong sex, you told them that that was ok as "sometimes shit happens".

FFS some people on this thread are completely ignorant.
Saying the OPs child won against a disabled child? OPs daughter is disabled!
Are there still this many people in the world who do not understand about hidden disabilities?
And I thought times had changed and people were now more aware!

I mean they both have a disability (DD dyspraxia) so I don't see why it was unfair

Those are all optional things. I’ve never been in a school that has regular mandatory spelling bees which every child is required to participate in in front of an audience of their own and their peers’ parents. Because that’s just not a thing. Same with music recitals/poetry recitals - when have you seen a school insist that every child (even those who can’t play music) stand up in front of everyone and try to play the violin? It doesn’t happen.

The teachers are blaming the governors they need to follow a procedure and wouldn't be able to do this if it was so recent. They obviously decided it was unfair.

Is it? I could easily believe it.

The OP child has a disability - dyspraxia. Child might be very able in all sorts of ways but still a known and well documented disability. So who are you saying is the able child?

The school were wrong in allowing this race to go ahead imo.

DD needed that win, she hates school, is dyslexic and dyspraxic so struggles with even the basics. She needed that win to go into school with confidence and have something to boast about (trust me she’s the type of child that needs to be able to talk about her achievements as she’s always complaining and comparing herself).

This part of your post didn’t sit right with me though. Children do not need to win anything to go to school with confidence. You are projecting your opinion on to your child. She probably wouldn’t have bothered about winning if you hadn’t made it such a big deal. Have you told her she didn’t win? I also would never have encouraged my children to ‘boast’ at school over their achievements, be proud yes, but do not boast! They re 7 years old FFS!

The school have handled this extremely badly in my opinion.

I don’t understand this at all. The OP says: Every child had to do everything but they were all awarded a house point for taking part, 2 points for a 1st place only.

And yet there was somehow a race with only two children in it? Why weren’t the rest of the class doing it?

I think it's rotten taking a medal off a child once they've got it but I also think it's poor form placing the two children in the same race. I understand at that age they feel really validated by medals but I don't think it's very clever reinforcing boasting especially when you have won a raise against someone with mobility issues.

I think it's pretty poor to have a two,person race, and one be in a wheelchair. The two races the bot won, I'm assuming the other kids took a step back and encouraged him to win? I also,wouldn't have really encouraged my daughter to see it as a win when you are racing against a wheelchair user and there is only two of you.

@TheWayoftheLeaf
I mean they both have a disability (DD dyspraxia) so I don't see why it was unfair
Because one child is able to mobilise and another needs a wheelchair.

Your daughter knew she won, the school already went back and the children have done the who won bit.
Please don't chase this, as no matter how you do this your never going to be able to boast about this win, but you could end up with children hearing bad things spoken by their mums and effect your child, for about 3 weeks of school.
Can you find another way to give your daughter an ego boost. ?

Dyspraxia is a mobility issue, both children have a mobility issue, it’s just that one is in a wheelchair so more visible